Joe and Abigail Becker, a Jewish couple from Boston, have inherited a house on Sweetgrass Island in South Carolina’s Lowcountry. Perennial misfits, the couple is excited to give the South a try — and maybe even find a place to finally call home.
Their Boston friends are convinced they won’t last the summer. But the South works its magic on the Beckers, holding them fast to misty farmlands, marsh, and grand oaks, the twang of banjos, and the blues. Even locals put aside their usual mistrust of transplants. Joe is convinced that has more to do with Abigail’s beauty than with his dubious charms — especially in the case of Billy Euston. A celebrated pitmaster and womanizer, Billy is transfixed by Abigail at first sight. Though Joe is used to his lovely wife’s effect on men, he misjudges their playful flirtations — a tragic mistake that will tear through the island like a hurricane, leaving the broken and the battered in its wake.
